Case Study: a prominent international gas and electric utility company cuts tower classification costs with EagleView imagery

A Clear View of a Utility’s Transmission System

A prominent international gas and electric utility company in the northeastern U.S. struggled to classify the material composition of its thousands of transmission towers. This was critical for proper maintenance and cost allocation, but four months and $650,000 into the project, their team had only classified 30% of the assets due to missing or conflicting records from past mergers. Their subsequent attempt using standard orthogonal imagery also failed after three months and an additional $50,000 spent.

The utility turned to EagleView and its high-resolution oblique aerial imagery. EagleView's solution provided angled, geo-referenced photos that allowed for accurate material identification from the office. This enabled the company to slash the percentage of unknown towers from 70% down to 8%, saving significant time and budget while also improving workflows for its property and forestry departments.